One library, many paths.

Julius Caesar · 49–48 BC

The Civil War

Caesar’s account of the rupture with Pompey, campaigns in Italy and Spain, and victory at Pharsalus.

Julius Caesar · 58–50 BC

The Gallic War

Caesar’s campaign narrative from the migration of the Helvetii through the conquest of Gaul and Hirtius’s continuation.

Vergil · 29–19 BC

The Aeneid

Vergil’s epic of exile, divine anger, war, and the difficult founding of a Roman future.

Vergil · c. 42–39 BC

Eclogues

Ten pastoral poems in which song, land, love, loss, and political violence meet.

Vergil · c. 37–29 BC

Georgics

A poem of cultivation, labor, weather, animals, civic order, violence, and renewal.

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay · 1787–1788

The Federalist

George III · 1763

Royal Proclamation

Continental Congress; principal drafter Thomas Jefferson · 1776

Declaration of Independence

Continental Congress · 1777; ratified 1781

Articles of Confederation

George Mason; Virginia Convention · 1776

Virginia Declaration of Rights

Confederation Congress · 1787

Northwest Ordinance

George Washington · 1796

Farewell Address

Kentucky General Assembly · 1799

Kentucky Resolutions

James Madison; Virginia Legislature · 1798

Virginia Resolutions

Abraham Lincoln · 1863

Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln · 1863

Emancipation Proclamation

United States Congress · 1789; ratified 1791

Bill of Rights

United States Constitutional Convention · 1787

Constitution of the United States

United States Congress · 1865

Amendment 13

United States Congress · 1868

Amendment 14

United States Congress · 1870

Amendment 15

George Washington · 1789

First Inaugural Address

George Washington · 1793

Second Inaugural Address

John Adams · 1797

Inaugural Address

Thomas Jefferson · 1801

First Inaugural Address

Thomas Jefferson · 1805

Second Inaugural Address

James Madison · 1809

First Inaugural Address

John Quincy Adams · 1825

Inaugural Address

Abraham Lincoln · 1861

First Inaugural Address

Abraham Lincoln · 1865

Second Inaugural Address

Ulysses S. Grant · 1869

First Inaugural Address

Ulysses S. Grant · 1873

Second Inaugural Address

Rutherford B. Hayes · 1877

Inaugural Address

Benjamin Franklin · 1787

Final Speech to the Constitutional Convention

Thomas Paine · 1776

Common Sense

Benjamin Franklin · 1784

The Project of Moral Perfection — Autobiography Selection

Henry David Thoreau · 1849

Resistance to Civil Government

Orestes A. Brownson · 1865; source edition 1866

The American Republic

John Adams · 1776

Thoughts on Government

John Quincy Adams · 1821

Independence Day Address

Brutus · 1787

Brutus I — Federal and Consolidated Government

Brutus · 1787

Brutus II

Frederick Douglass · 1866

Reconstruction — Selection

Frederick Douglass · 1845

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Frederick Douglass · 1852

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? — Selection

John Woolman · c. 1763–1764; published posthumously

A Plea for the Poor

Robert E. Lee · 1861

Letter to Winfield Scott

Robert E. Lee · 1861

Resignation from the United States Army

Robert E. Lee · 1861

Letter to Anne Marshall

Robert E. Lee · 1865

Farewell to the Army of Northern Virginia

United States Congress · 1867

First Reconstruction Act